‘Grotto going to Great Jones distillery’

    

Grotto News You Can Use

Azim Grotto—The Handsomest Grotto in the Realm™️—will gather next Tuesday for a tour of a local distillery. From the publicity:

Azim Grotto 7

Tuesday, July 7

Meeting at 6:30 ▴ Distillery Tour at 7:30

Great Jones Distilling Co.

686 Broadway, NYC

$45 per person

After the brief meeting for Prophets only, the tour is open to Prophets, friends, family members, and guests age 21 and over.

Important: You must RSVP and pay in advance to guarantee your spot on the tour. Space is limited, and the distillery requires a final count prior to the event. To RSVP and submit payment, contact the Zachretary here.

Join us for an evening of fellowship, fine spirits, and good company as we explore New York City’s first legal whiskey distillery since Prohibition.

Sympathy and Good Fellowship,

Joe McMillen

Prophet Monarch

There will be more Lucky Seven events through the year, but looking at September, the Empire State Grotto Association will sojourn to New Jersey for its Fall Convention.

Details still to come, but click here to book your room no later than August 19.

     

‘Annual St. John’s/St. Alban’s gathering’

   

If you’re lucky, you look forward to all your Masonic gatherings. (The secret is to purge your calendar of events that don’t do “it” for you.) Saturday, the annual huddle of New Jersey research lodge guys happened at The Cranbury Inn, our usual haunt.

Invitations went out, but only four of us could make it for a square meal and brainy conversation. It’s our St. John Baptist Day Luncheon (I think of it as St. Alban’s Day Luncheon) for the stalwart supporters of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786. We went four hours, finally wrapping it up at five o’clock, as the dinner crowd began taking over the place.

The Cranbury Inn strives to display an adequate number of Washington portraits and firearms...

…and, in my opinion, they come fairly close.

Conversation ranged from lamenting the cancellation of this year’s John Skene Masonic Conference to upcoming conferences in California and Cambridge to the benefits of authors achieving a balance of historical overview and experiential knowledge of the Craft to the bizarre sexual content of a novel, supposedly based on the Hiramic Drama, penned recently by a New Jersey Mason. And a lot more. (Someone pitched the idea of Magpie Mason merch! So look for Magpie T-shirts, trucker hats, tote bags, pens, key rings, koozies, etc. in time for Christmas.)

Of itself, The Cranbury Inn says:

In the mid-1600s in the center of the colony of New Jersey by Cranberry Creek, a mill town began to develop along an old Indian trail that had widened into a road. This road connected the colonies and was becoming a main thoroughfare for colonial travelers. In 1697 Cranberry Towne received its charter from England. With increasing development, a need arose in central New Jersey for a place to eat and drink, get fresh horses, and spend the night; thus, in the mid-1700s (1750 and 1765) our taverns were built to meet these needs of the travelers passing through this area.

After the colonies declared their independence from the motherland, this business officially established itself in 1780. What is now The Cranbury Inn has been functioning as a place to eat and drink since the 1750s.

In the year 1800 Hannah Disbrow Dey & Peter Perrine were married in the Presbyterian Church across the street from The Cranbury Inn. Middlesex County Courthouse records tell us “they built as their home the house that is now The Cranbury Inn.” Their house was built across the front of our two original taverns built in 1750 and 1765, thus further developing and upgrading their business.

Rev. William S. Hall, their grandson-in-law, was a Quaker and a declared abolitionist, the time frame of which seems to coordinate well with the date the New Jersey state historian put on the conversion/remodeling of a flue space on the east wall of our oldest tavern. This converted flue space is an alleged slave hiding space from the days when what is now The Cranbury Inn was an alleged stop on the underground railroad...

Read more here.

It’s a lot of driving for all of us, but we really enjoy it. I wouldn’t mind if we added a St. Andrew or St. John Evangelist celebration.

     

‘Rubicon’s 14th annual festive board and conference’

    

Click to enlarge.

It’s official: The Rubicon Masonic Society’s fourteenth annual festive board and conference is set for the weekend of August 14 in Kentucky.

The graphic above has all the details, but click here to get started.

Having attended last year’s lucky thirteenth annual, I heartily endorse this event. It’s a 1,500-mile round trip for me, so I won’t be able to get there, but if the commute is easier for you, please go. Do it for me and all who cannot be there. You’ll love the fellowship, ambiance, and the content of the discussions.

     

‘Lodge ◆ Arch ◆ Crypt ◆ Temple’

    

Academia Lux Borealis Lodge 25, the research lodge laboring in the Grand Lodge of Alaska, has a series of discussions on the York Rite planned for the coming weeks. From the publicity:

Academia Lux Borealis and Alaska York Rite present The Quarry, The Arch, The Crypt, and The Temple.

Join us for a four-part presentation that will encompass the hidden history, esoteric design, and organization of the York Rite/American Rite of Freemasonry. Open forum questions and discussions will follow the presentations.

Join online here.

The Quarry

Saturday, June 27

Noon, Eastern Daylight Time

The Arch

Saturday, July 11

Noon, EDT

The Crypt

Saturday July 25

Noon, EDT

The Temple

Saturday, August 8

Noon, EDT

Otherwise, the lodge will meet Wednesday, July 22 for its regular communication at 11 p.m. Eastern. VW Bro. Nick Adair and MW Bro. John May will lead and moderate the discussion “Morality.” 

Looking ahead to September, the lodge will meet for its tenth annual Autumn Retreat, on the weekend of the eighteenth, at Tonsina River Lodge.

     

‘CANCELLED: John Skene Masonic Conference’

    

Sorry to spread the news of the cancellation an hour ago of the John Skene Masonic Conference in New Jersey in late August.

Ticket sales, thus far, were too low to incur the risk of all the expense, and this one had an incredible roster of accomplished scholars flying in from all over.

Bad timing is part of the problem. The weekend in question landed between the Scottish Rite biannual and the York Rite triennial, and many New Jersey Masons would find attending all three very difficult. Plus, it’s the final weekend of August, when many simply would have end-of-summer R&R in mind.

I hope the organizers try again for next year, but at a different part of the calendar. There are no open Saturdays, I guess, but maybe there’s a way forward.

All the speakers have been notified. Ticket holders will receive refunds, if they haven’t already.

It’s truly disappointing but, frankly, there’s no surprise at a high octane Masonic learning event not garnering a lot of support.

     

‘The ALR’s installation on Tuesday’

    

The American Lodge of Research will conduct its elections and installation of officers next Tuesday night. We’ll be inside the Colonial Room of Masonic Hall at 7 p.m. A meal (I don’t have the details) will follow.

Stop by and cheer on W. Bro. Michael as he ascends to the Solomonic Chair in America’s eldest lodge of research, chartered in 1931.

I was hoping to find a seat on the sidelines for the coming year (and henceforth), but apparently I am indispensable as Tiler. Or maybe they just want to keep me outside!

     

‘The Mystic Tye on the art of research’

    

I’d never heard of The Mystic Tye Podcast until Monday, but they’re up to the fortieth episode, apparently. Published last Friday, “Four Masonic Leaders, One Epic Panel” unites host Wes Regan with Arturo de Hoyos, Zane McCune, and Josef Wäges for an hour of discussion on research techniques, the diversity of rites, the unexpected origins of certain traditions, technology, and other topics one discovers when reading about Freemasonry.

Click the graphic above to watch this one-hour discussion.

     

‘Chapter of Research to meet Saturday’

    

UPDATE: Meeting is cancelled.

Happy St. John’s Day!

Naturally, Grand Lodge will host its St. John’s Weekend in Utica in a few days, during which Thomas Smith Webb Chapter of Research 1798 will hold a convocation Saturday at 1 p.m. A change of venue for this one. Instead of the Utica Temple, this will take place in the library of the Masonic Care Community for the convenience of those who must be at the MCC for other events that day.

It looks like there isn’t a program of speakers settled yet, so EHP Christopher Fox  welcomes your talent, especially if you have not presented before the chapter previously.

Sorry I cannot be there. I’ll be in New Jersey for the annual St. Alban’s Luncheon, which I’ll tell you about afterward. But, if you’re going to Utica, have a great time!

     

‘Civil War Lodge to take Monterey Pass’

    

Civil War Lodge of Research 1865 will return to Pennsylvania next month to visit the site of the Battle of Monterey Pass.

I admit this campaign has been unknown to me, possibly because it is overshadowed in history by Gettysburg, only about twenty miles northeast, and fought days earlier. As the Monterey Pass Battlefield Park & Museum website puts it:

After three days

of battle at Gettysburg…

...both sides had taken substantial losses. Robert E. Lee’s 50,000 remaining troops of the Army of Northern Virginia needed to withdraw from 80,000 remaining Union troops in George Meade’s Army of the Potomac. Where did they go?

Monterey Pass was the site of a battle that would determine whether Lee would be able to retreat and fight another day. Sixty miles of wagons, loaded with supplies needed to sustain Lee’s army, headed for the river crossing at Williamsport, Maryland to escape to Virginia. Twenty miles of those wagons made their way via Monterey Pass. During the night of July Fourth, 5,000 Union troops, including George Armstrong Custer, attacked this retreating wagon train in the middle of a raging thunderstorm.

The Monterey Pass Battlefield Park and Museum is a 125-acre natural, cultural & historical park located in Washington Township, Franklin County, Pennsylvania. The park and museum preserves a portion of Pennsylvania’s second largest Civil War battle.

The battle included the Toll House, site of the fiercest part of the battle where the Union broke the Confederate line. The Toll House still stands and is privately owned and occupied, though negotiations are underway to bring it into the Park. The Park includes miles of trails with magnificent views of the area….

The lodge, one of six research lodges at labor under the Grand Lodge of Virginia, will meet at Acacia Lodge 586 in Waynesboro on Saturday, July 18 at 10 a.m. After lunch, we’ll leave for the battlefield site.

Cashtown Inn

For dinner on both Friday and Saturday, we will gather at Cashtown Inn, itself at the center of the wartime storm.

Read about that here.

Looks like another great weekend with the lodge—my only Masonic appointment for July, and then I’m off duty until the John Skene Masonic Conference at the end of August in New Jersey. (Unfortunately, that will coincide with the Official Visit of MW Matthew Szramoski to Virginia’s research lodges, scheduled for Haymarket Lodge 313, on August 29. Listen, I can’t do everything.)

      

‘MLMA introduces BINO’

    

The front page of the MLMA’s spring newsletter shows one of sculptor Bryant Baker’s George Washingtons, located in the famous Hollender Room of Masonic Hall. I hope we’ll be able to hold our board meeting there.

The new issue of The Page & Pillars, the quarterly newsletter of the Masonic Library and Museum Association, is in our members’ inboxes, delivering the essential news of the annual meeting in Manhattan and the roll-out of BINO also.

I know we’re only a day into summer, but let me again promote this annual meeting in autumn, scheduled for the weekend of October 16. Most details can be seen here, and they’ll be posted to our website soon. As you can see, it will be hosted by the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library, located in Masonic Hall on 23rd Street. The official events will take place Saturday the 17th, so those visiting New York City will have all day Sunday for sightseeing. We’ll gather for dinner on Friday night.

BINO is Books Indexed Neatly Online—a monicker only a librarian could devise! I know a project like this has been in discussion at the MLMA for nearly twenty years (maybe longer), with the goal of providing our members the mother of all library databases.

Ideally, our Institutional Members, namely the libraries and museums of Freemasonry, will submit to MW Thomas Hauder, Past Grand Master of Nebraska who quarterbacks this initiative, their catalogs of books and other texts. The BINO will show researchers, readers, etc. where to find the book, journal, etc. being sought. The MLMA/BINO will not get you the book, but will show you where to find it. Then you would contact the library in question directly with your request. (Which reminds me to ask the Livingston guys about an old Collectanea.)

Click to enlarge.

Membership in the MLMA is understood under two denominations: Regular and Institutional. Individuals would sign up for Regular at only $30 per year and benefit from access to BINO and our other platforms; support from library and museum professionals via our online discussions and, naturally, in person contact; and access to members-only events. Such Masons could be research lodge guys, lodge historians, grand historians, keepers of your lodge’s archive, library, and antiques—or really anyone who wants to support the labors of the MLMA.

Institutions, such as Masonry’s grand lodges, supreme councils, etc., libraries, museums, research lodges & societies, historical societies, et al. may join at $50 annually to receive those same benefits, plus have voice in creating MLMA content, vote at the annual meeting, and other leadership opportunities.

In addition to signing up yourself, ask your lodge, especially your research lodge, to apply for Institutional Membership. You’ll be glad you did.

     

‘2027 Prestonian Lecture’

    

PGL of Shropshire

RW Bro. Roger Pemberton

The United Grand Lodge of England announced earlier this month that RW Bro. Roger Pemberton will be the Prestonian Lecturer next year, delivering “Hogarth’s Masonic Satires: 200 Years of Misinterpretation.” Congratulations!

If the name rings a bell, you may remember his paper “Charles Shirreff: A Life of Disappointments,” published in Vol. 136 of Ars Quatuor Coronatorum in 2023—and presented in QC2076 on this very date in that year, incidentally.

English readers of The Magpie Mason might be acquainted personally with this Past Provincial Grand Master of the PGL of Shropshire. His bio-note at the conclusion of that paper in AQC reads:

Roger Pemberton was born in Cheshire and raised and in North Wales. He attended Christ Church, Oxford where he gained an MA in English Literature. After a short spell teaching English in England and the Middle East, he ran an import and distribution company in the UK and Europe for thirty-two years. In retirement, he devotes much of his time to his office as Provincial Grand Master and Grand Superintendent for Shropshire, and with what little is left, he spends in pursuit of his interests in opera, Masonic research, literature and motorcycling.

Wishing this succeeding Prestonian Lecturer a fruitful tenure with enjoyable travels!

My thanks to Bro. Martin for sharing the news.

     

‘Hughes! Hodapp!! Hrinko!!! And more!’

    

Looks like a great day of Masonic learning. If I wasn’t committed to Civil War Lodge of Research that weekend, I might have signed up for this. Don’t let that stop you though. Click here.

     

‘Grand Lodge whisky returns!’

    

The Grand Lodge of Scotland announces the return of its Grand Master Mason’s Choice single malt. For those of us in the United States, that’s a scotch. (That 70cl = 700 ml. And I think the 40 percent proof = our 80 proof.) If I’m not mistaken, this is the third distillation since 2015. From the publicity:

Grand Master Mason’s Choice Whisky

£55.00 (inc. VAT)

Speyburn is the only distillery to draw its water from the Granty Burn, a major tributary of the River Spey. Matured in American oak ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks, the resulting whisky is mellow and well balanced with hints of fresh fruit, toffee and butterscotch, and a long smooth, sweet finish.

Grand Master Mason’s Choice is 10-year-old single malt—70cl—40 percent proof.

This whisky is available from the Grand Lodge shop within Freemasons’ Hall (after 10 a.m., due to Scottish licensing laws). The whisky also is available for sale from our online shop, within the UK only.

Please note a restriction on one bottle per order, which is in line with Royal Mail requirements. (In Scotland, it is illegal to sell alcohol to anyone under the age of 18 years, per Section 110 of the Licensing Act 2005.)

Click here.

GL of Scotland

Bro. Alexander C.G. Moncrief
Grand Master Mason

     

‘Legends of the Craft returns’

    

Click to enlarge.

Legends of the Craft, the society in New York Freemasonry that imparts memorization techniques to strengthen ritual recall so the meaning of Masonry takes root deeper within us, is back.

RW Bro. Anthony says:

A one-hour Masonic education panel designed to spark deeper interest in the role of memory within the Craft. Through three short talks and a guided discussion, Brothers will explore memory as trust, memory as meaning, and memory as practice. The program serves as an accessible introduction to the need for more intentional Masonic memory training, while laying the foundation for future workshops on ritual confidence and recall.

If you can’t get to Utica next Saturday afternoon, use the link to join the Zoom session. RSVP here.

     

‘Grand Master to present at research lodge Saturday’

    

Pennsylvania Lodge of Research will meet Saturday to hear two presentations, including from the Grand Master!

This will take place at the Scottish Rite Valley of Harrisburg, at 2701 North Third Street. The lodge will tyle at 10 a.m.

Right Worshipful Grand Master Robert D. Brink will discuss “The History of the Tun Tavern and the Tun Legacy Foundation.” W. Bro. Joshua J. Nay will tell the lodge about “A Brief History of Knights Templar in Pennsylvania.”

If you haven’t been following this amazing Tun Tavern project, click here.

Pennsylvania Masons can register here. Visitors should contact the Secretary here. Lunch ($15) will be served at around noon.

I’ll get out there one day. I’m thinking of visiting the lodge’s December 19 meeting, but making a weekend trip of it by including some area attractions. (Have you heard about this Green Dragon Farmers Market place?)

Anyway, the lodge’s trestleboard always lists the names of the brethren seeking election to membership; the ballot will be spread for fourteen(!) candidates from around the Keystone State. Their ages range from 21 to 79. Lodge membership currently stands at 268. Inquire into membership here.

      

‘A look inside Strict Observance Lodge’

      

GCR

Did you know the Grand College of Rites has aprons? They are available, at $70, by mailing your check(!), payable to the Grand College of Rites, to PO Box 550, Black Mountain, NC 28711-0550. We certainly may wear these at the Annual Convocation in Virginia during Masonic Week each February, says Grand Registrar Rick, and also where your grand lodge permits diversity in clothing when, for example, we present educational talks based on Collectanea, and about the GCR, etc.

The new Collectanea, the annual transactions of the Grand College of Rites, has been reaching mailboxes lately. Volume 26, Part 3, titled History and Ritual of the Strict Observance Lodge St. Andrew of the Three Sea-Leaves (1767-90), contains the history and ritual of the Strict Observance Lodge &c., &c. And there are “bye-laws” too. This is a hefty volume of more than 200 pages, as opposed to the skinny editions of recent years. It is very interesting though, even to me, and I’m not drawn to Templar and Templar-derivative stuff, like Strict Observance. (Here in New York City, we used to have Lodge of Strict Observance 94, but I don’t know its origins or fate.)

A few items that stand out:

• In the Ritual of the First Degree, the Rite of Destitution is described by the lodge Master: “You were then stripped bare and deprived of all metal. Money, honor, treasures are external things which are subject to corruption and changes of fortune. Anything that is subject to external accident and change cannot possibly constitute our true happiness. We therefore undressed you in order to lead you back to yourself alone, so that you might seek your only happiness in yourself, in the true greatness of your soul.”

The correct book cover, albeit with a typo.

An alternative version in the footnotes reads: “By your discarding and leaving behind all metals, we sought to remind you of the state of innocence, when you did not need them; at the same time, we wanted to give you the warning not to build your happiness on a perishable and destructible treasure.”

• In the Apprentice Degree, the initiate receives the name Tubal Cain.

• The “symbol of the Apprentices” is “A column shattered at the top, but standing firm on its base, with the inscription: adhuc stat.” [“It still stands.”]

• Emperor Joseph II’s historic decree on Freemasonry, called Freimaurerpatent, is quoted. Regulation 2 is interesting:

Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor

Masonic gatherings shall not be permitted in any county town where there is no regional government office, still less in the countryside or, in the case of a private individual, at his country-seat, and in respect of the holding of such gatherings the same bounty shall be set for their detection and punishment as exists by charter for games of chance, because every assembly of different classes of people cannot be left to itself, but must be under the known direction and supervision of tried and tested men, and those who act contrary to this should also be personally punished for disobedience.

• And in that Code of Lodge Bye-Laws we find scores of detailed instructions on acceptable behavior. And there are detailed job descriptions for officers. Being in my final weeks as Tiler of The American Lodge of Research, I was attracted to:

Instructions for the Brother Tyler

or Decorator

1. The Brother Tyler or Decorator shall arrange the decoration and lighting of the Lodge.

2. If any decorative items are missing or damaged, he shall report it to the Brother Steward.

3. He is assigned to the Brother Steward, whose orders he must carry out.

4. He is subordinate to the Master of Ceremonies, whose orders he must carry out.

5. He shall instruct the Serving Brethren, indicate to them their proper places at Reception and Table Lodges, and hire them to serve at them, but he must also see to it that at Table Lodges they receive a little entertainment and are not forgotten.

6. When one Lodge has something to communicate to another, or a Visiting Brother of distinction has been invited, then it is his duty to deliver the tickets to the proper place.

Collectanea for 2025 is an engrossing read thanks to the intricate details that show us how a late eighteenth century lodge in Europe operated. The Templar aspect isn’t distracting at all. In fact, I doubt a modern commandery member would have any interest in reading this book. Even the seventy “bye-laws” of Lodge St. Andrew of the Three Sea-Leaves, which are said to originate “from the period of the Templar System,” read like Masonic regulations one would expect from that time and place.

If you are not a member (our members are styled Fellows) of the Grand College of Rites, but you are interested in quirky Masonic history and rituals, please consider joining. The GCR keeps things simple: one meeting per annum, $20 dues, one mission. Perfect. Click here.

     

‘Treason and reason in one of those busy weekends’

    

Yesterday, at New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786, W. Bro. Gerald, of Congdon-Overlook Lodge 163, presents his findings on the history of a Pennsylvania lodge chartered in Colonial times at Basking Ridge, New Jersey.

I enjoyed one of those four busy weekends per year I get when there are three meetings squeezed into a 24-hour period: Scott Council on Friday night, New Jersey’s research lodge the following morning, then my AMD council last night. It’s a lot of driving, but it’s been a routine for decades at this point, so I feel obligated.

Scott Council 1, of Royal and Select Masters, meets every other month at Freemasons Hall, home of Union Lodge 19, in North Brunswick, New Jersey. Almost always a good time, and we benefitted from Light from the East, thanks to T.I.M. Michael. He presented a talk on Jephthah from the Book of Judges—his life and times, as well as his importance in Masonic theory and ritual.

In the morning, I was back in the same lodge room for New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786. (Maybe I should just stay the night in a local hotel.) If you want to celebrate America250 in New Jersey Freemasonry, the research lodge is the place to be!

Senior Deacon Glenn examined the treason of Gen. Benedict Arnold vis-à-vis the morality of our gentle Craft’s teachings, leading to a philosophical discussion of what does it mean to be a rebel disloyal to the rebellion. W. Bro. Gerald of Congdon-Overlook 163 (not a member of our research lodge—yet), presented “Basking Ridge #10: The Mysterious and First Masonic Lodge of the Jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of New Jersey.” This history of the origins and life of the lodge, which was located in Gerry’s town, illustrated how central it was to the New Jersey Masonic story.

Magpie file photo

This artifact is found inside the Museum of Masonic Culture at the Trenton Temple.

We segued from Solomon’s Lodge 1 to Haym Solomon to conclude the program portion of our meeting with a screening of the Oscar-winning Warner Bros. short film from 1939 Sons of Liberty. Starring Claude Rains, this was made by the director who would go on to direct Casablanca. The 20-minute biography of Haym Solomon told the story of how part of the Revolution came to be financed.

Charmingly corny, it also inadvertently gives us a look at how patriotism was expressed in an America that still was pro-America. The past is a foreign country, indeed.

Secretary Erich shared the progress being made in the publication of our first book of transactions in a dozen years.

Click to enlarge.

We talked about the Skene Conference coming in August. Buy your tickets already! The line-up of speakers is amazing, and you’re going to miss it? Are you serious?

We ended somberly, noting the death last Sunday of Gordon S. Wood. The Pulitzer-winning historian was an authority on the American Founding. Not a Mason (as far as I know), but he wrote of the Masonic Order of that era, describing its essentiality as a social network that united elites and nobodies in workshops of democracy, learning self-governance through practical local actions. Age 92. Hit by a car. Terrible.

And we were out by noon. A hearty lunch at a nearby restaurant ensued, but attendance was scant due to a variety of other events in the general area, from a ribs cookout to the Rosicrucian College’s convocation to a Third Degree.

I then headed to Hightstown for the quarterly meeting of J. William Gronning Council 83 of Allied Masonic Degrees. It was afternoon still, so I sat in the shade for a time and read the new Collectanea. In the meeting, I milked my Thomas Reid paper yet again, which seemed to have been well received. Reid was the Scottish Enlightenment philosopher whose words are heard in lodges today in our Middle Chamber Lecture. Sovereign Master Robert presented an overview of our actual allied Masonic degrees, explaining why AMD exists and where its role fits in the overall Masonic fraternity as a nexus of philosophy, scholarship, and research.

Looking to our September meeting, a degree will be conferred, which is always a good thing. Read all about it this summer in the Gronning Gazette.

Seriously, a lot of driving. It’s a good thing I like being a Freemason.

     

‘MLMA registration is open’

    

Registration for the Masonic Library and Museum Association’s Annual Conference here in New York City is open. This is slated for the weekend of October 16 with the planned activities mapped out for Saturday the 17th. Those are:

☞ our business meeting, with Deputy Grand Master Oscar Alleyne speaking, at Masonic Hall

☞ tour of Masonic Hall

☞ tour of the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library

☞ roundtrip on the Staten Island Ferry for the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

☞ behind-the-scenes tour of Fraunces Tavern Museum

☞ dinner in Fraunces Tavern

The fees for this day, in total, are very reasonable. Both Friday night and Sunday are left open for attendees to make their own itineraries. There’s a lot to do in Manhattan!

Visiting attendees will be billeted at the Hampton Inn located just across Sixth Avenue near the corner of 24th Street.

I will forgo the Statue of Liberty trip. My first visit there was fifty years ago with my grandfather’s lodge. Instead, I’ll be found inside Barclay Rex, just down the street from Fraunces, enjoying a pre-dinner smoke.

Click here to sign up, and I’ll see you there.

     

‘R.A. “Bob” Gilbert has died’

    

Manifestation

A figure sat within the chair

Which was not previously there;

A voice spoke in the darkness then

More subtly than the voice of men:

The message in the ear it spell’d

Was one great secret long withheld

And while I live, or when I die,

O Grave! where is thy mystery?

 — A.E. Waite

Tabatha Cicero photo

Chic Cicero and Bob Gilbert at a Golden Dawn conference, Bayonne Masonic Temple, 1998.

Bro. Robert A. “Bob” Gilbert died today, according to the sad news gradually making the rounds. I can’t eulogize him, having met him only twice, but he opened my eyes in a way that makes me very thankful.

Gilbert served as Prestonian Lecturer in 1997, traveling across England presenting “Freemasonry in Popular Literature.” And he went beyond the borders of the UGLE, somehow, improbably, visiting my obscure lodge in New Jersey.

Click to enlarge.

Bayonne Lodge 99 Worshipful Master Jeremiah Hawkins finagled the visit. As I recall, it actually was a Wednesday night meeting of my lodge, Menorah 249, and not Bayonne 99, when this occurred, but no matter. I never learned how Jeremiah booked Gilbert, but just now realized, thanks to the photo at top, that Gilbert was in town for an International Golden Dawn Conference hosted in my lodge’s building. (As I type this, the brethren there are outside the building celebrating their home’s centennial anniversary. Vivat!) That’s Tabatha Cicero’s photo of husband Chic with Gilbert, taken at that conference.

What the Prestonian Lecture experience did for me was to leave a first impression about Masonic learning. This was 1998, and I had been a Mason for about a year—and was starting to wonder why there wasn’t more to it, but felt too inexperienced to ask Where’s the rest? So, a guest lecturer, sojourning from England(!), to give a talk within a prestigious tradition, showed me here is one way to find what I seek. If not for that night, I may have abandoned the fraternity within a year or two. Therefore, to me, Bob Gilbert, Masonic historian, proved inspirational.

Five years prior to his visit to this humble lodge, he had been Master of Quatuor Coronati Lodge 2076. His byline is found in different volumes of Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, and he authored and edited books. Also was renowned as a speaker in locales around the world.

The Bob Gilbert we’re likely to read about in the coming days is the mystical seeker who delved into the works of Arthur Edward Waite and the Golden Dawn but, also in those subjects, he was a perfectionist for historical accuracy. He knew those who lack a factual grounding in such pursuits are at risk of believing anything. That is not helpful, to say the least. Which reminds me of the talk he gave the second time I encountered him, at the October 2008 Rose Circle conference at Masonic Hall.

He was no longer a member of QC2076, but I hope there will be a typically comprehensive obituary in the upcoming AQC.

Alas, my Brother.